New bloke in Australia with '69 convertible Dart

[ConfusedMuchOfTheTime]

G'day FABO peeps. Introducing myself & my LP27 as per forum protocol. I recently purchased this /6 225 ripper. It was imported into Australia in 2017 and I have no further history unfortunately at this stage. I figure the car spent most of its life in a dry part of the US (or it was rarely driven) given the minimal rust. I believe it's factory paint (Y2) and the top has rotted out as you'd expect. I have upwards of 95% of the project as a few parts have been robbed at some point. Plan is to initially locate missing parts as best I can. Front buckets will be the toughest to locate I expect. Body panels are good but rust in low areas around rockers, wheel housing and trunk extensions etc as expected. Everything else is straight besides the dents. Block turns over but haven't fired yet given no starter, battery, leads etc (early days). Plan is a son and Dad project as Dad never got around to sorting out a build so this will be for him as much as for me. I'm in for the journey and pumped to learn new things and skills. Planning as close to a stock build (225 console auto, Y2 outside, X1 inside) as possible to cruise around our sunshine state (Queensland, not Florida) for years to come. Photos are average for now as car is tucked up under the house atm. I am looking forward to engaging with this community and hopefully with your help I will be able to bring this a-body back to life. Chris.

 

[4spdragtop]

Welcome aboard Chris! Very nice start!

 

[WV64Signet]

Hey there... Welcome to the site.... Look forward to seeing your progress. Very cool 'vert.

 

[Car Nut]

aboard!

 

[missing linc]

Welcome from
Looking like pretty sweet project.

 

[harrisonm]

Welcome aboard, mate. 69 Dart convertibles are one of my favorites. Bucket seats won't be hard to find, they will just be expensive to ship to Australia. Are you planning on going back stock with driveline and colors? There is absolutely nothing wrong with a slant 6 cruiser. And Dart convertibles look great in white.

 

[ConfusedMuchOfTheTime]

Thanks for your the welcomes. Am really excited to get stuck in to this one. Have just managed to do the basics so far (vacuum out, wiring status check, bits got/missing check, initial rust assessment etc). Good to know I might find seats ok; even if just the frames as I've seen foam and covers sold separately. Yes, back to stock or as close to as possible. Everything I need is largely there and/or easily attainable, just got to find the time to get in to it. I like the Y2 yellow and X1 combo alongside the Chrysler blue block so I'll likely go that way.

 

[ConfusedMuchOfTheTime]

Hi everyone
A quick update on a bit of progress on my '69 Dart convertible. I ripped into the passenger front end over the weekend. I had to source some imperial tools of course as we're all metric down here (10mm not 9/16" etc) but I'll get my head around that challenge eventually. Realised I needed the bumper off to get the fender out (10 detachments to get to 1) so after removing the splash shield and all bolts/nut combos the bumper was stopping me. This is where the fun really began. 7/8 bumper bolts cracked free ok but one was well corroded on and I could not shift it manually. I laced up a racket tie down to the radiator core support and the spanner, lubed the nut well and slowly racketed away. The nut cracked free but it took all of me wedged up against a house support and padding around the spanner to move the nut maybe a quarter turn on each effort. It was an upper driver-side bolt so not much room to move in there on my back. Took me 2hrs to free it. So, bumper off, fender off - yippee. Some pop rivets evident aft of the wheel well which is no surprise. A little rot top of the inner fender but an easy patch job there. Splash shield is toast but everything else looking good. Had a poke around on top of the frame rail between the upper control arm to clear dirt/debris and all is good and dry. Worked out the side lenses are just that, lens with zero power, only power to the fender mounted turn signals on the outside. Happy days, just hope the driver side is as clean.

Only issue I have is the lower most splash shield bolt is punched through the rocker end piece and with a detached nut on the inside which I cannot get to from the cabin or the plastic port hole in the end cap so going to need to free the rocker end cap and weld the nut on the inside.

Am waiting on a few engine bits and pieces. Have a dizzy and alternator on the way and need a starter motor, battery and leads and want to fire this beast up.

Am slowly getting into the parts hunt. Pretty tough from Aussie and painful looking at AMD's prices against marketplace etc but I'll get there one piece at a time.

You will notice from the photo I am replacing all bolts, washers and hardware as I remove stuff. Don't want to be that guy with and handful of unexplained bolts at build's end. Let me know if you're keen on more photos of anything on the car.